A dog sled musher says she emptied her gun into a charging bull moose with no effect, and it went on to trample several of her dogs

• A large moose attacked a dog sled team who were on a training run in Alaska.
• The dog owner said that the moose was undeterred by her emptying her gun into it.

A large bull moose attacked a dog sled team in Alaska, trampling the dogs and seriously injuring several.

Bridgett Watkins, from Fairbanks, shared the story in a Facebook post, which she described as "the most horrific past 24 hours of my life."

Watkins said that she and her dogs were attacked by the angry moose while training them on a 52-mile run on February 3. A bull moose can weigh 1,400 pounds and stand seven feet at the shoulder.

She was training her sled dogs to run in The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, an annual long-distance sled dog race in early March from Anchorage to Nome.

When the moose attacked, Watkins said she emptied her gun into the animal, but it was undeterred.

"I ran for my life and prayed I was fast enough to not be killed in that moment," she said.

Watkins said that she was able to cut six of the dogs free and sought refuge behind her snow machine, from where she watched as the attack on her other dogs continued.

She said that the moose continued to trample the dogs repeatedly for nearly an hour.

"I have never felt so helpless in my life," Watkins wrote on Facebook.

Eventually, a friend arrived and killed the moose, at which point they took the dogs to be treated by a trauma team of vets at North Pole Vet.

She said several of the dogs were seriously wounded in the attack and are recovering from major injuries, including internal organ damage and broken limbs.

One of the dogs was stomped in the head and suffered severe head injuries. At least two of the other dogs underwent surgery, and another was "stapled up" by the vet, Watkins said.

A few days later, Watkins, a part-time emergency room nurse, posted an update to say that the dogs were healing well.

"With the most exceptional vet team, hours of sleepless nights, giving massages, rubbing down every sore inch of them and giving more meds than I do to my human patients in the ER-we are getting stronger," she said.